In field hockey, defense and field possession are paramount to a team’s victory.

And that’s exactly how Lehighton defeated Northern Lehigh Wednesday night.

At 3:07 of the first period, the Tribe’s Chloe Moyer struck the ball into the back of the cage for the only goal of the game to give the Tribe a 1-0 Colonial League victory.

Before the score, Northern Lehigh opened the game by advancing deep into Lehighton territory, but it was the home team that got the first shot on goal that was saved by Northern Lehigh’s Maddy Husack.

The Tribe dominated field possession for much of the first period, and also earned a corner shot with no time left on the clock.

Lehighton stayed on the attack for the first five minutes of the second period. At the 10-minute mark, the Bulldogs’ Ada Porobenski dribbled the ball through the defense, but a scramble in front of the Tribe’s cage resulted in no shots on goal. Field position then favored Lehighton.

“I thought we came out strong tonight,” said Lehighton coach Emma Sawyer, “and we hustled to the ball.”

After the intermission, the Tribe continued to move the ball into the attack zone for the first six minutes. The Bulldogs made a brief counter attack in the middle of the period, but were still unable to put a shot on Tribe’s goalie Lillian Klotz.

“I thought we played hard all game long,” said Bulldog’s coach Allison Chruscial. “We gave it everything we got, and we got into scoring position several times. We just need to trust each other and instead of standing in front of the goal, we have to keep working to get direct shots on the net.”

The Bulldogs’ effort remained strong at the start of the final 15 minutes as they managed two shots off to the side of the goal. With 10 minutes left, a scramble in front of the Lehighton net was finally cleared away by the defense.

In the last six minutes of the contest, the Bulldogs got off one more shot.

Sawyer was pleased with her team’s performance.

“I thought we had good control of the game,” she said. “We attacked when we had opportunity. We take pride in playing defense. We were rock solid in preventing from them from getting off good shots.”

SHUT THE DOOR ... Lehighton didn’t allow any really good scoring chances, as Klotz didn’t have to make any saves for the entire 60 minutes.

SEASON SWEEP ... Lehighton swept the two-game series from Northern Lehigh, having won their first encounter by a score of 2-0.

SENIOR TRIBUTE ... Lehighton honored seniors from both teams before the game. The Bulldogs’ honorees were Addison Cieri, Angela Hale, Sarah Hanzarik, and Madison Thomas. The Tribe honorees were Natalie Blair, Brielle Frable, Allee Maini, and Anna Howland.

HOME HOSPITALITY ... Kudos go out to the Lehighton staff for setting up a tent over the scorers’ and press table when a spritzing rain began to fall early in the game.

No. Lehigh 0 0 0 0 - 0

Lehighton 1 0 0 0 - 1

Goals: Lehighton - Moyer.

Records: Northern Lehigh (1-16); Lehighton (6-7-1).